A most perplexing problem to a person suffering from pain or having symptoms of a health problem is identification of a proper, immediate source of medical help. With chest pains, does the person rush to an emergency care facility only to learn of temporary indigestion? Does the person with an apparent rash call his family physician, obtain an appointment and later learn that he needs an allergy specialist? Does a person who notices a dark black discoloration on his arm and concludes that it is identical to a melanoma image on the Google web site immediately rush to a dermatologist—only to later learn of a brown spider bite?
Health problems are perplexing, nerve racking and often result in time and dollar costs for unnecessary, expensive emergency room visits, wait times accompanied by anxiety for appointments with physicians or nurse practitioners, and further delays accompanied by more anxiety while waiting for laboratory tests, imaging services, radiologist interpretations, etc.
A related problem is ineffective use of preventive medicine and wellness programs. No one seems willing to pay for monitoring services that early detect changes in physiological factors such as glucose, hemoglobin A1C, blood pressure, aberrant heartbeats, low oxygen saturation, inflammatory markers suggesting arteries at risk for plaque rupture, etc. Indeed, patients and other payers seem to respond to needs for preventive monitoring only after incidents have required costly medical appointments and physician advices. Similarly, individuals commonly delay learning of how to cope with, among others, diabetes, COPD, cancer, smoking, and obesity until adverse complications force consideration of such matters, and even then, such information may be difficult to timely obtain.
There is no known integrated and existing answer to the patient's problems of navigating through the sourcing of medical care providers, effective use of preventive medicine, and educational systems in our medical establishment. Moreover, the current system of providing medical services in this country prohibits the rational development and delivery of a highly efficient, safe, and effective therapeutic paradigm for assessment, diagnosis, treatment, education, engagement, monitoring, and management. Such a rational delivery system should provide a reliable patient navigation system, an effective preventive medicine program, and informative educational curricula. Delivery of this improved health care system should be provided on mobile platforms that comport with modern patient expectations.
A primary reason for the lack of solutions to these problems is the lack of payment for such services and the lack of any potential profitability. In our health system, costs are reimbursed only for medical services that have been coded and submitted for payment to the Medicaid or Medicare payer or the insurance company or the third party payer. Moreover, individuals are reluctant to pay for oral or text advices that are devoid of face-to-face services. And persons will not pay for preventive medicine or informative programs until they recognize the need which often does not arise until adverse health conditions and resulting complications occur. Solutions to these challenges would be a significant advancement in the art.